Habitat: From the low intertidal down to 229
m. Commonly taken off Sydney by fishing trawlers in about 60 metres, and
has been seen by divers in 10-50 metres. This species was once common
in Sydney Harbour and Botany Bay, as the following extract from Angas'
1847 list of shells from Port Jackson records:

"This noble volute, almost the largest of the
genus, seems to attain its maximum growth in Port Jackson. It is now a
shell of rare occurrence, and is found half burying itself amongst
weed and ooze on sandy and muddy flats beyond tide-mark. Rose Bay,
Vaucluse Bay, and Middle Harbour are its favourite localities. It
occurs in places along the coast, such as Woollongong, Botany Bay, and
Brisbane Water - and extends northwards to Moreton Bay, where the
specimens found are tuberculated."

This species is now less commonly seen by scuba
divers around Sydney and in southern NSW. It has been reported (Deas
1970) at depths of 16-26 metres buried in sand, crawling over sponge
covered rocks and laying eggs. The eggs are attached to rocks or to
solid substrates under the sand. The eggs are arranged into towers, each
being quite firm, and could easily be mistaken for a plastic container
of some sort.
A photo of the egg mass is given by Wilson & Gillett (1971, p. 79)

Remarks: Specimens from Sydney are light in
weight without shoulder nodules, as in Fig. 1. A form with high spire
from 60 fathoms (110 m) was named Cymbiolena magnifica altispira
Mayblom, 1951, but the species shows continuous variation, and this does
not justify subspecies status. Heavy weight, nodulose shells (Fig.2) are
recorded from Sydney northwards, but appear to be more common in
northern NSW and southern Queensland. A slender, lightweight form with
pinkish colouration is recorded from the Capricorn Channel, central
Queensland (Fig. 3).